, headquartered in
Atlanta, Georgia , is a
Big Box Home Improvement Retailer that aims for both the
Do-it-yourself consumer and the professional in home improvement and
Construction . It is the largest home improvement retailer in the world, the second largest retailer in the
United States , behind
Wal-Mart , and the third largest retailer in the world, behind Wal-Mart and French company
Carrefour . The Home Depot operates about 2,000 stores across
North America . The company operates stores in the
United States (including the 50 states,
Puerto Rico , the
United States Virgin Islands ),
Canada , and
Mexico . The Home Depot also operates
EXPO Design Center stores in select U.S. markets, providing high-end home design products and services, and
10 Crescent Lane , an online home-furnishings store.
The Home Depot employs over 325,000 people.
Home Depot stores are large, averaging 109,000 ft² (10,000 m²) and warehouse-style, stocking a large range of supplies. The company color is a bright orange (PMS 165, CMYK 60M100Y), on signs, equipment and employee aprons.
The company was founded in
1979 in
Atlanta, Georgia by
Bernie Marcus and
Arthur Blank , and grew rapidly, with sales topping $1 billion annually by
1986 .
In 2000, Marcus and Blank retired.
Robert (Bob) L. Nardelli became chairman, president & chief executive officer of The Home Depot. He had previously spent almost 30 years at
General Electric , his career culminating as president and CEO of GE Power Systems.
Its
2005 sales totaled US$81.5 billion. Despite the 11% increase in revenue, it dropped one spot to #14 on the 2006
FORTUNE Magazine's FORTUNE 500 list (it was #13 in
2005 on $73.1 billion sales in
2004 ). The Home Depot also owns
EXPO Design Center , a chain of higher-end home decorating and appliance stores. and online home-furnishings store
10 Crescent Lane .
Current members of the ,
Richard H. Brown ,
John Clendenin ,
Claudio González ,
Milledge Hart ,
Bonnie Hill ,
Laban Jackson ,
Lawrence R. Johnston ,
Ken Langone ,
Robert Nardelli , and
Tom Ridge .
Home Depot carries several exclusive brands:
- RIDGID (power tools and professional plumbing tools)
- Ryobi (power tools)
- Workforce (Home Depot house-brand hand tools)
- Thomasville cabinetry
- Ralph Lauren paint
- Mill's Pride
- Hampton Bay (Home Depot house-brand lighting and ceiling fans)
- Glacier Bay (Home Depot house-brand faucets)
- Behr Paint
Home Depot has recently added
Self Checkout registers at most of its stores in
North America . These automated kiosks allow the customer to scans the barcode of the item they wish to purchase, then insert
Money to pay for the items, and receive any change automatically. The customer no longer needs to interact with a store employee during checkout, which has allowed Home Depot to redeploy more staff onto their store floors to assist shopping customers. Home Depot was a pioneer of these kiosks.
Since
1991 , the company has become a large supporter of athletics, sponsoring the
United States and
Canadian Olympic teams, and launching a program to offer employment to athletes that fully allowed for their training and competition schedules. While remaining supportive of Canadian Olympians, Home Depot ceased to be a sponsor of the Canadian Olympic Team in 2005.
Company co-founder Blank also purchased the
Atlanta Falcons franchise of the
National Football League in
February 2002 . The Home Depot is also the primary sponsor of
Joe Gibbs Racing .
NASCAR driver
Tony Stewart drives The Home Depot #20 Chevrolet Monte Carlo SS.
is the
Canadian unit of '''Home Depot''' and one of Canada's top
Home Improvement Retailer s. The Canadian operations consists of more than a hundred stores in
Alberta ,
British Columbia ,
Manitoba ,
New Brunswick ,
Nova Scotia ,
Ontario ,
Quebec ,
Saskatchewan ,
Prince Edward Island and
Newfoundland And Labrador and employs over 18,000 people in Canada. Unlike its American counterpart, the chain is only known as '''Home Depot''' (and does not employ a "The" prefix).
The Canadian unit was created with the purchase of
Aikenhead Hardware . Home Depot management has an ambitious plan to overtake its biggest competitor,
Rona , which has about four times as many stores. However, many of Rona's stores are smaller than the typical Home Depot store. In terms of big box stores, Home Depot has many more stores than Rona.
